ROlAnD Aira System-1m (v1.2)

Roland reinvents its past for the ‘patch generation’. Dave Gale reaches for his cables to find out how it racks up

The Aira range from Roland has created quite a buzz over the last couple of years, as Roland finally took the step that so many of us had been crying out for, with the reinvention of some of the classics from the company’s back catalogue. Apart from the expected culprits, in the shape of reimagined 808s, 909s and 303s, the flagship of the range was the System-1, complete with shallow keyboard, which many felt did not do the instrument justice. So Roland has taken the brave step of producing a rackmount, or even Eurorack-mount, version of the same instrument, complete with an enticing array of patch points, to excite the burgeoning Eurorack community.

Roland’s System-1m: it’s an SH-101 in sheep’s clothing…and a Jupiter 4, and an SH-2…

About MusicTech

The new issue of MusicTech is on sale Thursday, March 17th and this month we’re bringing you a 'Big Beats Special!'; we gathered together as many tutorials (for all levels) to help you provide that all-important backbone to your music productions. Or if you are some kind of ambient maestro, you’ll be pleased with a certain level of synthesis achieved over our 6 Of The Best, DIY Eurorack, Sound Design and Yamaha Montage features. As ever, enjoy the issue and send us some of the resulting beats. We like to Show Off Your Studios and we’ll soon be Showing Off Your Sounds, too, so keep it all coming.